[Pkg-shadow-devel] [shadow-maint/shadow] Allow dots (`.`) in user/group names (#34)

[Serge E. Hallyn]

On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 05:12:43PM -0700, Nicolas François wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> is_valid_name() is one of the functions that varies depending on the
> distributions.
> 
> One historical reason for forbidding periods in user/group names is that it
> was used by BSD's chown to separate username and groupname.
> I could find this reference:
> http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/chown.html
> 
> Also any program could have its own regex and reject / accept usernames (I
> don't know any standard username regex definition). Although, since much
> more relaxed policy have been used for a while (for example on Debian:
> https://github.com/Distrotech/shadow-utils/blob/distrotech-shadow-utils/debian/patches/506_relaxed_usernames)
> allowing periods should be quite safe.
> 
> Best Regards,
> -- 
> Nekral

Thanks!  So it sounds like a patch which allows '.' but adds a
configure option to enable that would be the way to go.

thanks,
-serge